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Friday, December 27, 2013

Students create presentations in the style of cartoons

Ok, now I really like this idea. PowToon allows you to create animated presentations within minutes. I couldn't believe how simple it was. This may be one of those digital tools worth buying. I am a big fan of blogging about free web 2.0 tools and PowToon is definitely free, but you can create class sets for yearly fees. You can create up to 30 exports for free and the only drawback is that your video export gets branded with the "PowToon" logo. Just watch the example below to see what PowToon can do. It does much more. In fact there is so much that this tutorial is going to be short. Like always, if you truly want to get good at any app product then you need to "play" with and explore all the options.

1. After registering at www.powtoon.com, click the "Start Now" button to get your cartoonized presentation going.

2. Choose a category, in this case I am going to use "Educational Clip." Next choose a template to use. Then give it a name and a description. Once you are all done just click the "Create" button.

4. On the left hand side you can see all the different slides you have. Above the 1st slide you can add and delete your slides.

5. On the right side you can add text effects, characters, animation to your objects, props, shapes and slide transitions.

6. At the bottom is your time line. All the way to the right you can add or subtract how long your slides is going to stay up. On the left side you have you play buttons to view your objects and timing. On the timeline you can decide how and when to add your different objects.

7. At the top, you have your standard icons that you would find in almost any presentation software. You can add images, sounds, and text as well as change the way the text looks.

8. Also at the top you have a "Preview" and an "Export" button. You can easily export your videos to Youtube. To get your embed codes though just click the "Preview" button.

9. Now click the "embed" button. Just copy the embed code and paste it into your blog or website.

Give PowToon a try and comment below how your PowToon came out and if there are other web 2.0 tools that you would like to share, that can be used for technology integration in the k12 classroom.

Worked with Snowflake Unified School District for the last 17 year. Taught Math, Earth Science, Spanish. Currently working on getting my Google Educator Certification. Currently learning to program Smartphones using the App Inventor 2.